The Dilemma (*½)
Directed by: Ron Howard
Starring: Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly, Winona Ryder,
Channing Tatum, Queen Latifah
*½
Out of ****
The Dilemma is a very in-between movie; as it can’t decide whether it
wants to be a comedy or a serious drama; with the (few and somewhat forced)
comedic elements left floundering, searching for an appreciative audience. The balance
leans away from comedy, with more serious aspects of the story being addressed
while being diluted with the forced comedy, often delivering jokes either in
bad taste (a two-time joke from Queen Latifah’s character, Susan Warner,
especially almost insults the viewer) or so off the chart even Vince Vaughn
cannot properly deliver it in a believable way.
Ronny (Vaugh) and Nick (James) have been best friends since college.
Nick has been married to Geneva (Ryder) for years, and Ronnie calls them his
model couple. Ronnie is dating Beth (Connelly), and Kevin and Geneva are both
starting to put pressure on him to propose or lose out. Ronnie and Kevin are business
partners developing a hybrid muscle car engine, and part of the story tells of
Kevin’s trials trying to break the formula to get the engine up to spec.
Planning his proposal to Beth, Ronny visits a botanical garden where he spies
Geneva “frolicking” around with another younger tattooed man, later introduced
as Zip (Tatum). The rest of the movie revolves around Ronny trying to get Beth
to confess to Nick, whether it’s through talking her into it or forcing her
with evidence he still tries to obtain; while everyone else starts thinking
Ronny is relapsing into his gambling days as he has ever more elaborate stories
and a tendency to show up at gatherings late and wounded.
The Dilemma includes character choices apparently designed to stretch
the movie’s running time, because I doubt anyone would be as stupid as Ronny
when he is confronted by Beth after his terrible speech at her parent’s 40th
Anniversary; improbable even for a Vince Vaughn character. Things like his
reaction to this confrontation and his overall stupidity are addressed nearing
the credits but it feels more like an afterthought once struck with the
realisation of the real stupidity of it all rather than a part of the story. While
the movie’s signature scene, Ronny’s toast, is terrible, there are two scenes
with real feeling, true emotion; one I will keep quiet on, while the other is
an oddly touching scene with Ronny sitting on a street bench offering a prayer
to God regarding his problems – no joke here, just an honest and desperate plea
to God, kind off unusual for movies nowadays.
Ron Howard is a good director, but he is very hit & miss as of late,
with some recent previous titles including the magnificent Frost/Nixon; the
good A Beautiful Mind and Ransom; but then also the bad Angels & Demons and
the terrible The Da Vinci Code. With The Dilemma he hits one of his low-points
again, and that might be a good thing to prepare him for his next movie, the (hopefully
well-translated) big-screen adaptation of Stephen King’s Dark Tower series
(probably only the first book to start off with). With The Dilemma however,
Howard and Vaughn miss the target, Vaughn being unable to reproduce his wise
cracking antics from The Wedding Crashers, among others (also starting to
become distant memories however…).
The Dilemma will leave you with an awkward feeling rather than a
warm-hearted one and I can think of many different movies to rather rent for an
evening than to spend money on this. I’d say avoid this one…
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